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Speech to GrowthFest 20 September 2018

This is the full text of a speech
delivered by Glenn Caplin, Chief Executive of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
Local Enterprise Partnership, at GrowthFest, a celebration of business support
and business success held at the Royal Cornwall Showground on September 20,
2018.

For those of
you who don’t know me, my name is Glenn Caplin and for the last seven weeks I
have been Chief Executive of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local
Enterprise Partnership.

I am also
service director for Economic Growth at Cornwall Council, and have been
involved in economic development in Cornwall for much of my career.

Today is all
about celebrating the success of our business community, and how the LEP,
Council and others are working together to create an environment in which our
people and businesses can thrive.

We want
successful businesses that create quality jobs, pay good wages and offer
opportunity to all.

Through the EU programme and Devolution Deal we have a suite
of business and skills support programmes that are designed to do just that,
and it’s good to see so many of them here today.

We’ve
already heard about the success of the Growth & Skills Hub, and how it is reaching the parts that other business
support hasn’t reached before, both in terms of sectors and geography.

So, if
you’re in business but haven’t connected with the Growth Hub yet, please do so.
We’ll hear more later about how it can help you grow your business and your
people.

For anyone
who hasn’t t heard of the LEP before, we are one of 38 Local Enterprise
Partnerships in England. LEPs are here to set local economic priorities, drive growth
and job creation, and raise workforce skills.

We are
business-led, and our board members are drawn from local businesses, local
authorities, and education institutions.

The
Government has tasked LEPs to use their local knowledge to drive investment in
their areas.

We are responsible
for allocating the Government’s Local Growth Fund, from which we have secured almost
£80 million, to invest in projects that unlock jobs, infrastructure and
investment across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

And as you
heard earlier from LEP Chair Mark Duddridge, we are also being charged with
drawing up a Local Industrial Strategy which will shape future investment in
Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly after Brexit.

This will reflect
the Government’s own Industrial Strategy, which is intended to be a post-Brexit
blueprint for the UK economy.

Every LEP is
expected to produce a Local Industrial Strategy and have it in place by early
2020. It will also shape how Government allocates its new Shared Prosperity
Fund, which will replace EU funding from – we think – 2021. So, we are entering
a critical transition phase away from the EU funding programmes that we have
had for more than two decades, to one where there are still a lot of
uncertainties.

We have
already allocated around three quarters of our EU funding pot – you’ll no doubt
be aware of some of those investments – in geothermal, space, innovation,
extending the geographical reach of business support and increasing higher
level skills.

Whether we
leave the EU with a deal or without one, we fully intend to ensure that the
remaining funding is invested in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly before the
programmes close, and will continue to argue for our ring-fenced status as
England’s only Less Developed Region to be honoured – whatever the outcome of
the Brexit negotiations.

And whatever
the new funding formula is for the Shared Prosperity Fund, we will be making
the case for both the need and the opportunity here to be recognised.

A simple
value-for-money equation may work perfectly well in urban centres, but it
doesn’t work in a geographically dispersed economy, where the costs of delivery
may be higher and the economies of scale lower. Yet we possess environmental,
physical, natural and knowledge assets that are of huge value and these should
be maximised.

Our region
needs a range of investment tools and mechanisms to make sure that the private
sector is supported to grow.

The good
news is that there is much in the Government’s Industrial Strategy that aligns
closely with our own exciting ambitions in Cornwall and Scilly. And this is no
accident. The LEP and its partners have been working hard to position the
region for investment and growth.

Inside your
delegate packs you will find a copy of 10 Opportunities. It’s basically an investment prospectus for Cornwall
and the Isles of Scilly across a range of established and emerging sectors.

Apart from
the opportunity for growth, what binds them all together is a strong sense of place.

Place and place
making are overused words these days, but they are important because it’s all
about how we use the unique features of where we live to drive our economy and benefit
our communities.

Take mining
for example. Cornwall’s mineral-rich geography spawned a mining industry that
once produced most of the UK’s tin and copper and saw the creation of ports,
harbours and entire towns. Today that expertise continues to be exported around
the world, as I saw during a recent visit to Wheal Jane where the list of
countries buying mining expertise from Cornish companies stretches around the
world

And the
increasing demand for electric vehicles and electronics has led to a rise in
global demand for tin and lithium, prompting a new wave of mineral exploration in
Cornwall.

This
includes, for the first time, using satellite technology to search for
subterranean lithium deposits by mapping geology from space.

Earth
observation is one of the key drivers of a new space race to put thousands of
small satellites in orbit over the next few years.

The space
sector is growing four times as fast as the UK economy and is an important part
of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, while the number of aerospace
companies in Cornwall has doubled in just five years.

Another
opportunity is energy. The EU Growth Programme is investing £10 million in the
United Downs Deep Geothermal Project to explore geothermal resources deep
beneath our feet.

Like mining,
this resource is an accident of geography but it will soon be used to heat the
Jubilee Pool in Penzance – and anyone that has ever swum in Jubilee Pool knows
that is a good idea!

On the Isles
of Scilly, the LEP and EU Growth programme are co-funding the pioneering Smart Islands project to create a local energy grid. This will
use an Internet of Things platform to balance electricity supply and demand which
will promote growth and economic resilience.

Smart
Islands has been hailed in the Government’s Industrial Strategy as an exemplar
of clean growth, and its findings are expected to be scalable across the world.
But it wouldn’t be possible without the unique characteristics of Scilly as an
island community needing to develop sustainable infrastructure.

There are
many more examples of how we can harness place for economic growth. Our marine
industry has been forged by millennia of seafaring and the number of marine
tech businesses has increased by 95% in the last five years.

Today that
expertise is engaged in many of the world’s marine renewable energy projects,
and the LEP is exploring how we can harness that to support the creation of a
new offshore floating wind industry in Cornwall.

Another key
sector is the creative industries, which are growing at twice the rate of the
UK economy. That’s one reason why the LEP is investing £2 million of Growth Deal
money to create a
new digital and creative industries cluster as part of the £20 million rebuild
of the Hall for Cornwall.

We want to
foster more businesses like Engine House VFX, an animation company in Redruth,
which was named this year as one of the 50 most exciting, innovative and
disruptive companies in the Country by Creative England.

So, if you
haven’t read 10 Opportunities then please do. It is designed to be the
foundation of our response when the Government asks our region for a Local Industrial
Strategy. We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but it is a good start and
we will want to involve the business community to help us set priorities for
investment as future funding arrangements evolve.

I want to
finish with a few words about inclusive growth. Everything we and our partners
do is designed to close the inequality gaps that persist in our communities. As
well as better jobs, better wages and better skills, we need to do everything
we can to make our society more inclusive and support the 42% of people who are
just about managing.

That
includes working with people who are removed from the labour market because of
disability, or long term health conditions, which number some 50,000 in our
area, or 15% of the working age population.

As Mark said
in his video, the majority want to work but often don’t have the opportunity to
do so.

For the last
two years the LEP has been working with local businesses, support agencies and
Government to look at how we can overcome these barriers and give employers the
information they need to recruit with confidence.

This summer
the LEP secured almost half a million pounds of funding for a pilot project
that aims to learn lessons that can be rolled out across the UK.

So, I’m very
pleased to hand over to Sarah Newton MP, Minister of State for Disabled People,
Heath and Work, who will explain a bit more about the Health & Work Beacon Project, and how businesses can get
involved.